Teardown slideshow: Inside the third-generation iPad

SAN FRANCISCO—The third generation of Apple Inc.'s wildly successful iPad media tablet, which hit store shelves this week, features a modified version of Apple's A5 processor, A5X, which has a larger floorplan to include quad-core graphics, according to a teardown analysis performed by UBM TechInsights.

According to UBM TechInsights, a sister company to EE Times, the A5X measures roughly 163 square millimeters, compared to about 120 square millimeters for the standard A5. Both chips use identical ARM processor cores, but the A5X adds four PowerVR SGX543MP4 graphics cores, which are paired in groups of two and then symmetrically opposed to each other on the floorplan.

The A5X, like the standard A5, features two application processor cores and operates at 1 GHz., UBM TechInsights said. But the A5X includes more DDR interfaces and more architecture added for the handling of quad-core GPU, according to the firm's analysis.


Click on image to enlarge.Diffusion image show the floorplan of the new Apple A5X processor.

Teardown slideshow: Inside the third-generation iPad

TAG:Apple Ipad Teardown UBM TechInsights